................A behind the scenes look at how designer Jennifer Griffin brings her vision to life................

Fire In the Soul

"Fire In the Soul" From the Merka series in The Elves of the Woodland Realm

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Trying Something New. Again.

Remember how I had posted a few weeks ago about how I had decided to drop a few things? Well, this post is about all of that. Please bear with me on this. I will throw in a few new images I have been working on. Like this one. An old image I finally got around to post processing.

Now, let me just say, I love what I do, all that I do. I have such a huge world in my head that I want to express visually but not the time to do it, and the need to make a little bit of money to live. Because I needed to make some income I decided to start on this journey of owning a small business. Fast forward 8 years later and we have my predicament that has lead me to drop some of the things that I want to do.

As a one woman show, I just can't do everything that is involved with running a business. At least, not anymore. Making my art/products, photographing them, listing them, packaging them when they sell, customer service that's involved, offering photography as a service, photographing those clients, post processing those images, keeping my website up to date, keeping up all of the social media sites 6 of them to be exact, custom orders, magazine articles to write, art shows to vend, keeping up with licensing and insurance, taxes.... the list goes on and on. I have to let something go.

I am scaling back just about everything. I am going to wean myself off of making jewelry. Once what I have made has sold, I will not be making any more. I am also going to pull away from steampunk in general. It seems that the trend is fading and that only the original hardcore steampunkers are still steaming on. But the high demand isn't there anymore so it is something I can let go. Again, once my fascinators are gone, I will not be making more to fill my shop.

And last but not least, with a sad heart, I am going to be pulling back from photography. I will not be offering standard portraiture, family photography, event photography or any service of that nature. If someone wants a fairytale shoot, I will take those clients, but otherwise my photography will be a means to get my art out into the world and not to make money.

I am also not going to be posting on all of my social media outlets. I will be sticking with Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I am also going to be closing my website, especially since it focuses on photography packages for potential clients. I will use my blog as the main resource for getting info to customers and clients.

I will be doing some different things, like sharing a coop type space here locally. I figured I'd rather store my stuff where people can see it and potentially buy it instead of storing it in a storage space in a box.

I will still be doing my mixed media art as well. When I get a wild hair to do it anyway. I am unsure about doing art shows anymore though. Still on the fence about that. The ones that I think I would do well at are HUGE and the fees are really high. Which cash flow doesn't allow for right now. Which brings me to my next dilemma.

I know the old saying is true, "You have to spend money to make money." But the one thing I told myself I would never do is dip into personal funds for business. And I have stuck to my guns with that. But my business is at a point that if I want to grow, I will need to hire out some of the work that needs to be done. I am going to be taking on an intern. She starts this week. She just wants to learn, so win win for everyone. I hope that one day I can pay someone for social media help and marketing. And have a sales rep. That would be super helpful a free up so much of my time to do what I need to be doing, which is creating.

So, I leave you with this. I will be posting way more since I don't have a website to keep up with. And hopefully that turns into more art and beautiful images to make the world a happier place.